Abstract
BackgroundNoroviruses are a major cause of epidemic and sporadic acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Unfortunately, the development of an effective norovirus vaccine has proven difficult and no prophylactic vaccine is currently available. Further research on norovirus vaccine development should be considered an absolute priority and novel vaccine candidates are needed. One of the recent approaches in safe vaccine development is the use of virus-like particles (VLPs). VLP-based vaccines show great immunogenic potential as they mimic the morphology and structure of viral particles without the presence of the virus genome.ResultsThis study is the first report showing successful production of norovirus VLPs in the protozoan Leishmania tarentolae (L. tarentolae) expression system. Protozoan derived vaccine candidate is highly immunogenic and able to not only induce a strong immune response (antibody titer reached 104) but also stimulate the production of neutralizing antibodies confirmed by receptor blocking assay. Antibody titers able to reduce VLP binding to the receptor by > 50% (BT50) were observed for 1:5–1:320 serum dilutions.ConclusionsNorovirus VLPs produced in L. tarentolae could be relevant for the development of the norovirus vaccine.
Highlights
Noroviruses are a major cause of epidemic and sporadic acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide
We present the potential vaccine candidate based on capsid protein of pandemic strain of NoV produced in the unconventional Leishmania tarentolae (L. tarentolae) (LEXSY) expression system
Taking into consideration the high level of immunogenic properties of virus-like particles (VLPs) compared to the properties of soluble protein, the VLP platform is recently being employed for many vaccine studies
Summary
Noroviruses are a major cause of epidemic and sporadic acute non-bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Noroviruses (NoVs) are positive-sense, single-stranded RNA viruses causing epidemic and sporadic cases of acute gastroenteritis globally [1, 2]. NoV infections are a problem in both developing and industrialized countries causing economic losses of over 60 billion dollars worldwide due to healthcare costs and lost productivity [4]. Despite having a very high genetic diversity most NoV infections are caused by Genogroup II, genotype 4 (GII.4) strains. Without an available prophylactic vaccine, NoV pandemics spread rapidly across the globe, causing great economic burdens due to medical and social expenses. Considering the substantial disease burden and the difficulty in controlling norovirus, vaccines may be an attractive and perhaps the only way to effectively control NoV in the wider community
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